CHRISTMAS has come early at a Humberston school, which has the go-ahead for £835,000 of new facilities.

Humberston Park Special School has planning permission for a series of extensions.

The work will see a new nursery school, with separate access from the main school.

Sixth formers will get a purpose-built learning area and three state- of-the-art classrooms will be built.

Headteacher Andy Zielinski said: "The development will set the school up for the next few decades.

"We are not extending to enable us to take more children, we just want the pupils we already have to be given more space.

"We currently have classes with up to ten children in them, but national regulations recommend seven or eight should be the maximum for a special school.

"Having the extra classrooms will give us the opportunity to meet those recommendations."

The majority of the development is being paid for by a £695,000 grant from the Education Funding Agency.

Now that planning permission has been granted by North East Lincolnshire Council, construction will begin on April 15, with the new buildings expected to be complete by December 13.

Humberston Park currently has 102 pupils aged between two and 19 who have physical and learning disabilities.

The new facilities will enable children with similar needs to be taught together.

Mr Zielinski added: "It is important to get our class sizes right as we have a mix of children, who need very different types of care.

"For instance, children with profound physical disabilities require a lot of space, both for their equipment and when we are working with them.

"The new building will also allow us to extend our catering facilities. This is because the staff room will move into one of the mobile classrooms currently used by the sixth form, providing more space off the main hall.

"We hope this will enable us to give some of our older children work experience and apprenticeships in the catering environment."

Construction of a £250,000 physiotherapy hub to complement the school's hydrotherapy pool is expected to be complete by January 25.

It will include a special trampoline for rebound therapy and a sound and vibration board, which will be used by the school's first full-time physiotherapist.